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After coffee with Lily she didn’t go back home, but she didn’t go out with her either. She seemed to notice that Rose was a bit lost in her own mind, and knowing her, didn’t even try to push her into talking.
“Maybe we should catch up some other day, you don’t seem focused, Rose.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Lil. Something has happened, but I can’t share it and can’t keep it out of my mind. Will you forgive me?”
“Hey” Lily said with a soft smile “It’s okay. I’ve seen you worse. Keep me posted if you need anything. Want a ride home?”
“No, no, I’ve got the Impala parked a block away.” Rose answered, relieved that her friend didn’t took it in a bad way.
“I can’t believe you’re still driving that junk.” She said with a laugh while picking her purse.
“Don’t call her like that. Dad’s gonna sense the rudeness.” Rose mock back and wave goodbye as her friend left the place.
July 2nd 2013
Cas’ still a no show. I’m recovering slowly but every day I feel a bit better. Dean’s behaving weird though, and I have the feeling he’s hiding something from me.
On the bright side, Kev is now with us in the bunker. He’s safe and working hard on the tablets. Today we told him Crowley’s tied up in the dungeon. He didn’t took it well.
July 5th 2013
Abaddon is back. We made a really big mistake and she got loose, hunting us down now. We might need the help of Crowley on this one, because she’s not a regular demon, she cannot be killed.
The angels are starting to group, we fear for Cas.
August 1st 2013
We found Castiel, a reaper had hold him prisoner and almost killed him. Actually, she did, but then Dean made her bring him back to life before slaying her. I can’t recall it though, she hit me hard and went blank.
Cas is a mess. The poor guy has been eating on shelters and sleeping under bridges all this time, and as we suspected he’s gonna be the target of the angels’ wrath. They blame him. He blames him. This whole business is a mess; I sense a lot of work coming up. For now I’m happy to know we’re all here.
August 2nd 2013
Cas left. Dean said he’s a liability and didn’t wanted to stay put. He hasn’t talked to me since. Again I’ve got the feeling that he’s not telling me something.
Rose stopped reading for a moment, trying to let this things sink into her mind. Slowly she was beginning to understand lots of things from her past, things about her father and uncles and how distant they could be sometimes from each other. She never knew why, but she had the certainty that some cases were heavier than others and made them darker and less confident in each other.
September 10th 2013
Charlie was here again last week, we had problems with the server and she came to help. Bonus: we found Dorothy. Yes, THE Dorothy, the one from the Wizard of Oz. Turns out the place is real and her father, L. Frank Baum, was a Men of Letters. We fought the Wicked Witch (I never thought I would be writing this down), and finally they went back to Oz. Both of them. Dorothy AND Charlie.
I feel a little sad, because I’m not sure we’ll see her again. But she was so happy.
Here she stopped. They never talked about this Charlie girl. And even so, Sam wrote about her as if she was a part of the gang. Thinking about it, and what might have happened gave her a shiver and a knot formed in her stomach.
Outside the day was ending and Rose figured it was already time to head back. So she grabbed her satchel and slowly started to walk back to her car. Well she thought my father’s car. The black ’67 Impala had been in her family all the way back to her grandfather, who had bought it when first married her grandmother; and she loved it.
It worked swiftly and silent as it could, and Dean always made sure it was in proper conditions. Rose loved the smell of leather and the little details that made her unique, like the plastic soldier stuck in the ashtray, and her father and uncle’s initials carved in the wood, and right next to them the R.W. added by her own hand. She loved how the mix tape her mother had recorded for Dean was still on the stereo, also stuck and with no chances of taking it out without breaking it whole. And she loved that it was her father’s treasure and he would lend it to her without any concern.
She using that car was a symbol of how much Dean loved her and trusted her. And she should give him the same benefit.
When Rose parked the car in the garage noticed that the lights of the house were all off. That could mean either they were all out or they were all in study. She closed the gate and walked to the front door slowly, still trying to figure out what she was going to tell them, and wondering how badly they would take it, but those thoughts deserted her when, with the corner of her eye, she spotted a black sedan parked a couple of houses down the street.
She opened the door and closed it rapidly, locking it up with all the chains she never bothered to use and peeked outside through the little window at the side of it.
“What’s going on?” asked Dean’s grave voice on her back and Rose jumped and squeeled.
“Dad! I thought you were out.”
“So you were locking us out?” he inquired with a vague smile.
“No, no. It’s… It’s probably nothing, but there’s a black car parked on the street.”
“So…?” he was trying to keep his voice steady but something in his tone betrayed him.
“I’m almost sure it was there when I went out earlier, and it’s not the car of any of our neighbors…” She let a second go through, while fixing her eyes on her father “Dad, what’s going on?”
Dean raised both hands and rubbed his face, thinking. And when he put them down he looked a lot older and tired. But before answering he pushed her softly aside and looked out of the window, spotting easily the car Rose was talking about, drew his phone out of his pocket and called, letting the phone work on speaker.
“Sam, get back to the house. I think they’ve found us.”
“Okay, let me just clean up, I’ve got something stuck to my shoe.” He hanged without another word.
“Jesus Fuck!” Dean whispered, and grabbed her daughter by the shoulder, looking at her deadly serious “Rosey…”
“What are they dad?” she asked, in a much more steady voice she thought she would manage. Dean gave her a strange look.
“What…?”
“I… I found this in the attic.” She drew the journal out of her bag and shot him a pleading gaze, hoping he would take it easy. “I know… well, not everything, but enough. What are they dad?”
Her father took a few steps back, looking at the leather book and sighed, sitting down in the nearest chair and grabbing his head.
“This is not how I wanted you to find out. Jesus! If it were for me you would’ve never found out.” He was rubbing his hands over his hair, not looking at her. “I hope you can forgive me for keeping you in the shadows.”
Out of nowhere, she started to laugh. A clean, innocent and relieved laugh, and her father looked at her even more puzzled.
“Dad, I was worried you’d be mad at me!” she managed to say finally. “I thought you were going to be pissed off because I looked through your stuff.”
“Come here.” He said standing up and walking towards her. “I could never be mad at you. You’re the most beautiful, intelligent and loving person I ever met. You, and your mom, you saved my life in ways I never thought possible.”
The hug lasted several minutes. A strong hug, filled with all the years of worries and secrets and the relief that meant not having to lie to each other anymore. Finally he broke apart and looked through the window again.
“Cas! Get your ass down here, now!” he screamed to the air, and Rose gasped when he appeared out of thin air.
“What?” he asked with concern, and stepped back when he saw her there “Rose…”
“She knows. Everything.” Said Dean, walking towards the study in a rush, while Rose and the angel tried to keep his hurried pace. “They’ve found us; we need to get the hell out of here.”
“Where are we going to go?” Rose asked suddenly “Dad, you haven’t told me what they are! DAD!” and for the first time in her twenty one years she grabbed him and turned him around, demandingly “Don’t walk away from me again!”
Dean stopped in his place and Castiel slide back, waiting for a reaction. Rose was waiting too, she knew her father had a strong character and though they’ve had many fights while growing up, she never dared to actually defy him. Dean stood there, looking at her, a hint of recognition crossed his face and took him years back.
“I’m sorry. I will tell you everything. But not right now. Pack everything you might need, I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”
She nodded and ran upstairs to her room and started looking throughout all her stuff, looking for books and notebooks she didn’t want to lose.
“I highly recommend some clothes too.” Said Castiel from the door and she turned around swiftly to face him. “I am sorry. I have always wanted to tell you.”
“I’m just so glad to know you’re tougher than I thought!” she said run and grabbing him in a hug. “I love you uncle.”
“I love you too, Rose.”
Half an hour later she was back downstairs with a handbag full of clothes and books, Castiel and Dean were waiting for her in the library.
“Is uncle Sam still not home?” she asked, worried.
“He was being followed.” Her father explained. “He can’t come back, but I’ve sent a message to him and knows not to come here.”
“Where are we going to go?” she asked again.
“We’re heading to the bunker.” Dean answered simply, and she had to contain herself not to jump with joy.
“I’m going to draw them away from the house, and then you’ll run.” Said Castiel and suddenly Rose realized he was wearing his coat again and it looked as if it were new.
She nodded and stood at a corner, while Dean checked the house, and finally they walked into the garage and into the car. She sat in the passenger seat and caressed mindlessly the leather of the seat.
“How many times did Baby save your life?” she asked to her father, and a grin appeared in his face.
“More than I can count. And we’re going for one more.” He nodded Cas, who disappeared and the gate started to open slowly. The Impala roared when the key turned in the ignition and the tires screeched against the pavement as Dean drove it out of the house in a rush. When looking back, Rose could see white lights blinking inside of the black car parked down the street.
She closed her eyes and let the sound of the engine and the swift movements of the car wrap her up. The night grew dark on them, and about two hours later she saw her father checking the time nervously.
“What’s going on?”
“Sam should’ve at least called by now.” He said quietly. “Open the compartment and take the green phone.”
Rose opened the lid and surprise hit her when she found at least five different phones, all in different color wrappings. She grabbed the one her father had pointed and closed it again.
“Now, call your uncle. It’s the only number in the contacts.”
“It says Robbie W.” she said hesitantly.
“Yeah, I know. Just call.”
The phone rang two, three, four times before Sam’s voice made her heart stop jumping in her chest and regained the ability to breathe.
“Hey, I think I’ve lost them, was about to call you. Those fuckers are quite difficult to evade, Crowley trained them well.”
“Crowley?” Rose asked perplexed, and she only got silent on the other side of the line for a couple of seconds. Dean looked at her with the corner of his eyes but said nothing. “Uncle Sam?”
“Rosey…?”
“Hey, don’t leave me hanging like that! If you’re being followed by demons you should always keep on talking.”
“I… I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, we’re heading to the bunker, meet you there.”
“Tell him to be careful.” Dean said without unlocking his eyes off the road.
“Dad says be careful.”
“O-okay. Yeah, I will be. See you there.”
She hung down and the glimpse of a proud smile appeared in the corner of her lips.
“I can see you’ve done your homework.” Her father said quietly.
“I’ve read enough to know Crowley’s name.”
The rest of the trip was quiet and none of them talked much. The night was heavy upon them and there were no cars to be seen on the road, nor towns either. Clearly her father knew where he was going and how to avoid being seen. He was more than fifty and looked like thirty, and he had in his eyes a shine that she had never seen. The shine of the hunt.
When it was close to dawn, the finally stopped in front of a huge building in the middle of nowhere. The entrance was a gate isolated from the construction and didn’t seem there was anything else.
“Welcome!” Dean said with a sad smile. “Get inside, I’ll park the car.”
He threw her a set of keys and jumped back into the car, driving it around a little hill. Rose turned away and walked towards the door. It shrieked and clanged when she pushed it open, but once inside her breath left her as the magnitude and stunning of the place filled her eyes. The bunker was more than she could have ever imagined.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” she screamed while running down the spiral staircase and into the war room, and then the library, letting her hand caress the spines of the books. “Oh god this is beautiful!”
“I knew you’d like it.”
“Uncle!” she shouted and ran towards Castiel. “Oh thank god you’re okay!”
“I’m fine. Where’s your father?” he asked looking around.
“He said he was going to park the car, though I don’t know wh…” but Castiel was already striding off and out of an arch that led to what looked like a hallway. “Okay…”
The place looked abandoned and she wondered how long it had been since they’d been there. Silence took over and she could hear no one coming, so she sat down and pulled out the journal again.
January 14th 2014
I had been sleeping in my mind for months. Finally figured out what Dean was hiding from me and it was not a good thing. This angel, Gadreel, had took possession of my body in order to heal me, but he lied about who he was and he used me. I- He… We killed Kevin. Kevin is dead.
January 21st 2014
Dean’s gone. He took off with Crowley, we believe, gone to who knows where to try and find a way to kill Abaddon. Crowley says she’s a Knight of Hell, she can only be killed by the First Blade. Cain’s blade. Meanwhile, Cas and I are trying to track Gadreel, I’m going to slay that son of a bitch.
Cas is working on stolen grace, he can’t fly anymore, but at least he’s not powerless against the army of angels that are coming for him. I feel bad. Because of me, because of Gadreel, Dean had kicked him off before. He says he understands, but I can sense he had a really bad time out there.
A noise took Rose out of the reading and slammed the book rapidly as footsteps approached through the hallway.
“Dean, we’ve got to find him!”
“I am not leaving this place, Cas! I can’t leave her alone in here, she’s just a kid!”
“She’s not a kid anymore Dean, she’s perfectly capable! You were younger than her when you started hunting! Sam was only a year older when he had to drop school to go back to this! She’s not young, she’s not weak…”
“SHE’S MY DAUGHTER!” the voices had stopped only feet away from the archway and Rose sat still, trying to make no noise.
“I know that.” The angel’s voice said softly “You should protect her, but hiding her, right now, is not enough.”
After a couple of minutes they finally walked in, Dean’s eyes a bit red.
“Hey… you heard all that?” he asked blushing.
“Just a bit… hard to ignore the yelling.” Rose answered looking down and playing with the leather’s cord.
“Uhm… I…”
“I know you’re trying to protect me, dad. But I also believe is not going to be that simple. I mean, you’ve been hiding me and mum for years, you hid yourself when she died… and now they’ve found us. I… I’m guessing there’s nowhere to run?”
Castiel smiled proudly and Dean let out a sigh that indicated defeat.
“Come, let’s have a talk.” And he walked pass her and into a door that led to the kitchen.
“Are you still running on stolen grace?” Rose asked to Castiel when they followed.
“What? No… I’m… how do you know that?” but then he glanced the book she was grasping tightly to her chest and smiled. “That was a long time ago. Many things have happened since then. Maybe you should keep reading, there are bits there you’ll like to know.”
“I’m on it.” She answered.
After The Talk, as her father called it, Rose was clued as to what was coming for them. Turns out Crowley was a rather powerful demon that had played and betrayed them several times through the years, but since the last big fight against something called The Darkness, Hell was quiet and things had gone back to normal, which meant werewolves, vampires, djinns and lots of other creatures that dwell the world mostly feeding on humans.
And it has been that way ever since then, until very recently, when demons started to walk out again, specifically hunting them down. Specifically Dean. And now her.
“Okay but… why?” she asked again.
“We don’t know.” Both men answered at a time.
“It’s been twenty years since then. Crowley hasn’t bothered us since then.”
“Twenty… you mean I was already born when all that happened?” shouted Rose.
“Ah… yes. You were. But your mom and I… we… we weren’t together during that time.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it was too dangerous.” Said Castiel as Dean stood up and started pacing around the kitchen. “Your father thought it better if you both were as far away as possible from him.”
She could see the whole scene, he in a bad mood, her mother crying, she as a baby sleeping in the other room. He was like that. He was the kind of person who would die before placing anyone in harm’s way. But her thoughts and the conversation died abruptly, as the iron door screeched again as someone pushed it open.
All three of them run into the library again to watch Sam run down the staircase.
“Sammy…” Rose could hear a weight lifting from his voice when Dean pronounced his brother’s name in almost a whisper, hugging him. “Oh man, I was beginning to worry.”
“I’m alright.” the taller brother answered, letting his duffel fall to the floor and looking around “Wow, it’s been a while since we’ve been here.”
“It certainly has.”
“Good to see you, Sam.” Said Castiel stepping forward and grasping him in another hug.
“Just glad to see you’re all safe.” Then, Sam’s gaze strode back to where Rose was standing.
“So… you know?” there was a little disappointment in his voice, but also a small smile was appearing in his lips. “I guess it was better under the circumstances.”
“Oh, she already knew.” Said Dean patting her proudly in the shoulder. “She had been making some reading on her own!”
Rose awkwardly rose the journal so Sam could see it, and he gave a loud laugh.
“That old thing! I think it’s still a better way to find out than having to run away from demons in the complete dark.”
“I think it’s time for some sleep. The sun is already up. We’ll talk later.” It wasn’t a proposal coming out of Dean’s mouth, it was a command, and both Sam and Rose followed it, while Cas sat down with a book on the couch.
“You’re not sleeping, uncle Cas?” Rose asked stopping in her tracks.
“I don’t sleep, Rose. Never did.” He said with a wide smile that she returned slightly before turning around again and following the other two.
She walked in silence through the corridors, and at some point Sam waved good night and went another way, while her father pointed her to a specific room.
“This was mine, back in the day. You can sleep here… good mattress. I’ll be right next door.”
“Dad…” Rose called before he left.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“Growing up.”
He smiled and dragged her to yet another hug.
“I’m sorry for not wanting you to.”
After he left, she crawled up into the bed, but sleep had long left her and her mind was awake and in need of knowing. She picked the journal and once again let her fingers run over the symbol in the cover, the symbol she now knew it was the shield of the Men of Letters, and while doing so, she recalled Castiel’s words and began to pass the pages more quickly.
She caught glimpses of the entries she was discarding as the pages went by, names especially Donna, Kevin, Mrs Tran, Bartholomew, Crowley, Abaddon, Gohstfacers, The Mark of Cain, until she found something that caught her attention.
March 19th 2014
After not finding anything about the blade with Crowley, Dean just took off in the Impala. I walked all the way down to the motel with the demon moaning about the handcuffs and the headaches. He'd been injecting himself human blood, so disgusting. Luckily it was late and no one actually heard him. When we got there, Castiel was waiting for us with news about the Angel Wars (Dean’s named it).
When Dean came back he seemed a little off and didn’t answer any of our questions. He mumbled something about pie and went to sleep. Next day, he took off before I had the chance to talk to him, so I followed.
Dean has met a girl. And by the looks of it, a very funny and beautiful woman. Maybe something good will come out of all of this.
“Mom” Rose whispered, and smiled.